Concept of Financial Investigation in the Polish and International Specialist Literature

• NCJ Number: 238438
• Journal: Internal Security Volume: 2 Issue: 2 Dated: July - December 2010 Pages: 161-171
• Author(s): Krzysztof Wiciak; Piotr Starzynski
• Date Published: December 2010
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: Poland
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

Law enforcement and the Judiciary face a very difficult task of countering crime and its consequences. Crime-busting methods are continuously perfected by introducing new legal instruments and by amending the existing ones as well as by implementing system changes in the structures of the law enforcement system.

Abstract

The mechanism of that continuous change attained a particular importance since Poland joined the European Union and has become an acting part in the process of pan-European unifying of the criminal procedure; a process that forced rapid and uniform regulatory changes in all EU Member States. Adopting common European regulations of the property freezing procedure is a part of that unifying process. In that capacity Poland is obligated to implement the relevant EU framework decisions. Consequently, Poland and other EU Member States are required to take up effective measures to deprive criminals and organized crime groups of their financial resources. Poland acted accordingly by changing the existing regulations and by introducing new ones in the area of freezing property, recognizing and executing international freezing orders. EU Member States adopted different regulations in that area, conform to their existing national legal systems and the law enforcement praxis, a liberty allowed by the Framework Decision of 2007 providing for setting up of the Asset Recovery Offices. However, to unify law enforcement procedures the European Commission and some Member States introduced the concept of financial investigation that would comprehensively describe all activities aimed at depriving criminals from their financial resources. The authors have taken an attempt at describing the concept of financial investigation, its scope and objectives, and have presented selected aspects of the pan-European unification of the asset freezing procedure expounding on the examples of the Member States. (Published Abstract)